5 Factor Fitness. Chapter 10.Your Daily Meal Plan.

Let’s go through a normal day and I’ll show you where you can make better, more nutritional choices, without sacrificing taste or variety.

Breakfast.

Cereal: skip the sugar-laden stuff and go with a cereal that has at least 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber per serving, such as Kashi Go Lean! Toss in some fresh fruit, such as a few strawberries or some blueberries.

Want something warm instead of cold cereal? Use egg whites as a base for a low-fat omelette or simply scramble them up. Try the Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal Frittata. (The recipe appears in the next chapter.) For hot cereal, make some oatmeal and blend in a scoop of whey-protein powder.

None of the above appeals to you? Then have a bowl of nonfat cottage cheese with a handful of berries thrown in.

Milk: for your cereal (cold or hot) or coffee/tea, skip the whole or percent varieties and use skim.

Optional sweetener: use aspartame or saccharine-free Splenda.

Optional toast: forget the white or wheat (which has a lot of white flour in it) breads and go with a no-flour bread. Its good taste will surprise you, and you’ll find it much more filling.

Drink: water! Start hydrating yourself early in the day with water; after all, your body has probably just gone at least eight hours or more without it. Don’t go the high-calorie juice route. Instead, get your fruit serving by having a whole piece of fruit (with skin and/or seeds).

Choose a sugar-free yogurt with berries, or have an apple with some cottage cheese. Blend up a shake with a handful of berries and a scoop of whey protein.

Lunch.

Soups/salads: I’m a big fan of soups and salads, as they tend to be low in bad carbohydrates and can be chock full of vegetables and lean protein choices. As a result, they fill up your stomach nicely without an excess of calories. For soups, go with those using beans and good cuts of meat. For salads, choose ones with grilled chicken, tuna (even canned), or shrimp; top with one tablespoon of your favorite oliveor sesame oil–based dressing.

If a soup or salad doesn’t do it for you today, you can have a sandwich with a few rules: forget the typical bun or bread, which are high-glycemic. Rather, use one slice of no-flour bread or a rice cake (see the bread question) to make an open-face lean meat (turkey or chicken breast, tuna, veggie meat, etc.) and optional nonfat cheese sandwich. Try the 5-Factor Reuben (recipe follows in next chapter). Or use a nonflour tortilla for a sandwich wrap.

Add a slice of tomato and lettuce for extra bulk in your tummy.

Toppings: use mustard (Dijon or yellow) instead of calorific mayo, or ketchup/BBQ sauce (no more than one teaspoon because of the sugar) for extra flavoring.

Drink: have a diet drink, ice tea (with Splenda), or water.

Afternoon Snack By this point in the day, you’re understandably hungry, especially if you’ve already worked out. Rather than eating a bag of chips or a candy bar, give your body a nice variety of healthy yet tasty foods: a little nonfat cheese and an apple; a couple of dill pickles wrapped in turkey pastrami; a slice of nonflour toast with nonfat cream cheese, smoked salmon and sliced tomato; a rice cake with a slice of veggie salami and fat-free cheese; beef or turkey jerky with a piece of fruit.

Avoid so-called “protein” or “energy” bars. Typically, they’re full of cheap ingredients like glycerin, bad fats, and high-fructose corn syrup. They may be ‘“high protein” but they’re inevitably “high sugar” as well.

Dinner Meat: pick a lean cut of protein, whether it’s chicken, steak (small portion with no visible fat), or fish, and cook it with just half a teaspoon of olive or canola oil, such as when grilling, broiling, or microwaving. Add spices for extra flavoring.

Fibrous, moderate-GI carbohydrate: steer away from fatty, highglycemic typical carb sides like potatoes, pasta, or rice. Instead, go with wild rice, squash, sweet potato, or a vegetable, such as broccoli, spinach, or cauliflower. Try a one-pot meal such as the Cioppino or HP’s Big City Chili. (Recipes follow in next chapters.) Drink: most are tempted to have something calorific, from soda to beer suds, at this hour; instead, stick with water or have some Crystal Light or Hansen’s Diet (all without caffeine) soda.

Meal Plans.

Here are some sample meal plans to help you get started. The 5-Factor plan leaves plenty of room for flexibility. Most of the suggestions below are easy to prepare in five minutes or less.

5-Factor Sample Meal Plans.

Monday. 1. Apple-Cinnamon,Oatmeal Frittata . protein. (egg whites) carbohidrate. oatmeal, dried apples.

2. Snack . protein. nonfat cottage cheese. carbohidrate.apple.

3. Curried Chicken Salad. protein.chicken breast & nonfat yogurt. carbohidrate.slice of no-flour bread.

4. Snack . protein. veggie salami, nonfat cheese . carbohidrate.Brown rice cake.

5. Lemon Salmon. protein. salmon. carbohidrate. quinoa, side salad.

Sunday. Free day! Eat whatever and whenever you want, and eat as much as you want.

5-Factor Eating Tips Be proactive, not reactive, with your diet. You make bad choices with food and drink when you don’t have a game plan and are tempted by anything that’s waved in front of your face. Follow the tips below, and making good choices will become automatic.

Clean House.

Here’s the number-one tip, and it may be a hard one to swallow. I recommend that you get rid of all the junk in the shelves, fridge, and freezer. What am I talking about? The sugary cereals, white bread, chips, cookies, etc. Replace them with healthier varieties the Next time you go shopping. In general, try to buy more “real food”— meats, dairy products, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables—rather than mostly packaged goods. Remember, anything that says “hydrogenated” or “high-fructose corn syrup” on the label is to be avoided. The pounds will come off faster and faster, just as soon as you put better food in the house.

Getting by on less.

If you’re used to eating a lot of bad calories, the first few days may be difficult to get through without sneak-snacking outside the five meals. That’s your body trying to get your fat back! Fight through the urge, or nibble on something very healthy. Distract yourself with something completely unrelated to food, and the urge to gorge will likely pass. The interesting phenomenon noted by my clients, myself, and others is that when you work out five days a week, your appetite actually is moderated rather than increased!

That seems totally counterintuitive, but it’s true. Part of it is psychological: because of the workouts, your body starts to look better and you start to feel better as well; you then develop a natural urge to take care of your body rather than go down the road of sabotage.

Go once, go slow.

Fill your plate once, and fill it thoughtfully with different colors, textures, varieties. Then don’t fill it again. When you start to eat, go slowly and enjoy. This seems simple, but it bears repeating because it can be hard to put into practice consistently. Remember, as you get older, you eat less but enjoy it more. If possible, try eating with a friend, colleague, or other good soul who enjoys conversation. The more you talk and are enjoying the other person, the less quickly and less quantity you’ll eat.

Downsize.

If you want to shrink your fat cells, then you also have to shrink the objects that you eat and drink from. From plates to bowls to soda containers to wine glasses, everything is bigger—and thus so are the portions. Because we’re conditioned to “clean our plate,” we do so, even if it’s enough food to feed two. People in generations past were smaller in part because they never used such monster-size dishes, glasses, and containers. So it’s no wonder our generation is the fattest in human history.

Fight the tide by purchasing more reasonable-sized dishes, glasses, and containers, which will help reinforce that you consume more reasonable-size portions. And always use these dishes, rather than eating out of large containers, such as a bag of chips or pint of ice cream.

Away from home, be wary of the huge portions they love to serve you at restaurants, from high-end to fast food, and either order less or take part of it home in a doggie bag. Only recently, McDonald’s made the unexpected and impressive move to remove the “supersize” option from their menu; while their food mostly remains suspect, even at places like McDonald’s you now can have a meal that resembles 5-Factor and fulfills the five criteria (such as a grilled chicken breast, a side salad, low-fat dressing, and Diet Coke or a bottle of water).

Clean your plate in the sink, not your mouth.

Ever notice that some people always leave a few bites on their plates (generally slim people), and that others never do, even when they complain how their full stomachs are starting to ache? It comes down to the messages they got in their earliest childhoods from their parents and caretakers. In some households, leaving Something on your plate was a grave offense; in others, it elicited no comment whatsoever. Some kids are praised for finishing their food and cajoled endlessly to eat more; others are left alone in this regard. Whatever happened to you at a young age, you are a mature person now who has the power to or not do things, according to your own will. Claim that power, and use it.

Isolate to overcome.

Isolate the parts of the day when you make poor food choices; rather than just saying, “i will be strong and not do that again,” learn from the experience and plan to eat a better food next time.

The periods of late afternoon to the pre-dinner period and the late night are the two toughest times of day, when the “munchies” can grab you. Anticipate it by having a 5-factor snack, such as a wheyprotein shake with berries or a piece of no-flour toast with some nonfat cream cheese. Your body naturally wants food every three to five hours that you’re awake; respect its wishes or you will cave in to the cravings.

Handle the hunger.

Eating five meals a day will usually work to keep hunger at bay, but occasionally it will rage without too much warning. Hunger is a signal that your body gives your brain because it is searching for nutrients; so go the healthy route and give it what it’s really looking for. Empty calories don’t do much to calm your hunger. After your hunger is appeased with healthy foods eaten at regular, reasonable intervals, then you can eat the occasional not-so-healthy stuff with much more discipline and moderation, instead of bingeing.

Fill the void, not your fat stores.

Stress, boredom, and unhappiness are three big reasons for eating poorly, but such “states” require much better solutions than calories. Rather, being active (including doing the 5-Factor workout) will do much more to alleviate those problems.

Have a planned “sit-down”.

Did you know that your body doesn’t register that you’re consuming calories as much when you’re standing versus sitting down?

(Now you know why you can eat hors d’oeuvres at a party all day long without noticing.) So try to cut out the stand-up snack or must-sample-while-cooking routine and wait to eat until you sit down.

Additionally, develop a routine in which you sit down for those five meals at approximately the same time every day, as your body Will Naturally Adjust To This Pattern And Will Learn To Be Less Hungry During The In-Between Times. A Sample Day Of Eating Times Could Be: 7 A.M., 10 A.M., 1 P.M., 4 P.M., And 7 P.M.

Preventing “Parent Fat”.

For many people, becoming a bigger family becomes a reality, literally. Whether it’s one kid or several, parents don’t have as much time to exercise, and their meals suddenly revolve around their children’s. Both can mean double trouble for our waistline. Common habits develop, such as finishing whatever your child does not (those calories actually do add up!), catering to your child’s demands to prepare junk foods like hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, and eating at tons of fast-food joints and “family restaurants” that treat grease like an essential fatty acid and beg you to load up, because after all, it’s “all you can eat.” besides losing these bad habits, make your 5-factor food and workouts a priority, thus developing a higher level of energy and setting good examples for your children.

Dessert.

If you can go without these extra sweet calories at the end of the day, do so. Or if a nice mixture of fruit does it for you, do that. Remember, you have the “cheat day” on sunday to enjoy a richer dessert.

For some of us, however, we have days when dessert after dinner is something we don’t want to go without. Try sugar-free, fatfree varieties of ice cream, frozen yogurt, pudding, and jell-o, although i caution you against forming an excessive dependence on artificial sweeteners. It’s far easier to quell sugar cravings when your taste buds have become less accustomed to the sensation of sweetness, and i don’t recommend using artificial chemicals in large quantities in your food or drink.

Stop and smell the roses.

This phrase is packed with wisdom, and the special meaning it conveys to us in this regard is “remember to stop and breathe.” it’s easy for some people to go a whole day running around in a frenzy without taking even one good, deep, belly-filling and belly-emptying breath. Obviously, 5-factor fitness will get you breathing, but you need to do it the rest of the day, too, when you are able to grab whatever food you crave (you don’t live in the amazon basin, so it’s a reality, even though you won’t be stocking inferior foods at home).

If you’re the type of person who eats “to relax,” then you may well benefit hugely from remembering to do this—while eating, one does breathe deeply, and thus, one feels calmer (the same is true of smoking, which is another insidious habit, one that is even more deleterious to your health). In times of stress, we breathe shallowly (an adaptive response that helped our distant ancestors, who had to be ready to take flight or to fight); at the office, you aren’t going to run away or get into a battle (although you may sometimes be tempted to do both!), so you don’t benefit from breathing shallowly. In fact, deep breathing will prevent a whole host of physiologically undesirable responses from being triggered, such as the secretion of cortisol in your blood. In any case, you won’t fall prey to the urge to keep a bag of chocolate chip cookies or caramels in your desk drawer “for emergencies.” A label look-see.

When you buy packaged goods, don’t just glance at the commercial side of the package that tells you how great their product is.

Flip it over and take a close look at the nutritional label. In particular, look for these things: Serving size: many manufacturers choose absurdly small serving sizes to make the calorie, fat, and carb counts seem little. First, estimate the fat and carbohydrate grams of a real serving of this food, using the proportion of each in their “serving size.” Calories: next look at the calories in a “real serving.” If it’s a frozen entrée, then it shouldn’t go above 350 calories; if it’s a snack, 150 calories is about right.

Carbs/protein/fat: rather than look at each one individually, look at them collectively. Aim for a “macronutrient” combination, so you get a balanced blend of the three; go a little higher in carbs and moderate in protein and fat. Avoid the all-carb packages; you must have protein and fat in there to create satiety.

Sugar/fiber/saturated fat: under the carbohydrates listed, check to see how much sugar is in the product; if it goes over 10 grams, then that’s too much (many “healthy” energy bars have more than 15 grams of sugar). Also listed under carbs is the fiber content; try to get some fiber in all packaged goods that you purchase. Under fat, note how much saturated fat it has; aim for little to none.

High-fructose corn syrup/hydrogenated oils: if either of these two are on the list of ingredients, put it right back on the shelf.

Real Results.

Kathyrn Garcia . 53 . Registered Nurse When Kathryn started on the 5-Factor, she weighed almost 200 pounds, even though she went for a one-hour walk each morning. As a result of the excess weight, she had horrible knee problems that impacted her job performance.

She was also very unhappy in her personal life and had recently been divorced.

Kathryn’s first question for me was about the diet plan.

She’d tried plenty of programs and always ended up caving in to her food cravings. She was thrilled at the prospect of being able to eat five meals a day and still lose weight. Kathryn embraced the 5-Factor method wholeheartedly, and she let it turn her life around. Her weight dropped to 138 pounds, while her confidence soared to the point that she started dating again.